LONDON (dpa-AFX) - Advertising giant WPP plc (WPP.L, WPPGY) agreed to sell 60 percent of Kantar, its global data, research, consulting and analytics business, to Bain Capital for headline enterprise value of about $4.0 billion or 3.2 billion pounds.
WPP plans to retain 60% of net proceeds to reduce debt. The balance of net proceeds, $1.2 billion, will be returned to shareholders.
The impact of the Proposed Transaction and the use of proceeds is expected to be mid single digits % dilutive to headline earnings per share in 2020 and marginally dilutive to headline earnings per share in 2021.
Completion relating to a large majority of Kantar's operations is expected in early 2020 and is conditional on the satisfaction of certain conditions.
Eric Salama will remain as Chief Executive Officer of Kantar and Robert Bowtell as Chief Financial Officer.
In certain circumstances, in the event of a disposal by Bain Capital of a majority of its interest in Kantar to a third party, it will have the right to require WPP also to transfer all of its securities in Kantar to that third party at the same price.
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